Written Answers Wednesday 14 March 2007

Scottish Executive

Higher Education

Mr Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give details of any changes to the income assessment threshold for loan support to part-time students in higher education that will apply for the academic year 2007-08.

Nicol Stephen: I am pleased to announce that the income assessment threshold for loan support for part-time students studying in higher education is to be increased from £13,000 to £15,367 for academic session 2007-08.

Ministerial Correspondence

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it intends to reply to my letter dated 26 January 2007 regarding NHS dentistry services in the north east.

Lewis Macdonald: I responded to the member’s letter on 28 February 2007.

Ministerial Correspondence

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when the First Minister will reply to Alex Salmond MP’s letter dated 17 January 2007 regarding Government Expenditure and Revenues in Scotland (GERS) calculation data, which was passed to the First Minister by HM Treasury.

Mr Tom McCabe: I shall reply to Mr Salmond shortly.

Waste Management

Nora Radcliffe (Gordon) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what decisions have been reached on future recycling rates and infrastructure to treat residual waste.

Ross Finnie: We have considered very carefully the strategic outline cases and draft outline business cases which have been prepared by local authorities. These various cases outline authorities’ views on the infrastructure needed to achieve Scotland’s share of targets laid down by the EU Landfill Directive on reducing the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill. The strategic outline cases have already been published, with certain commercially sensitive information removed, on the Scottish Executive website at: http://search.scotland.gov.uk/search/pages/search/basic.asp?QuerySubmit=true&Paging=true&Page=1&QueryText=strategic+outline+cases .

  The Executive gives very high priority to waste prevention and minimisation. We have just issued our household waste prevention plan, which as well as work on waste prevention commits us to more work on re-use. We have also just issued our business waste framework.

  In addition, we want to ensure that we continue to increase the recycling and composting of municipal waste. I can announce today that we remain committed to achieving 30% recycling and composting of municipal waste by 2008. We also need to achieve a substantial increase in recycling and composting by 2010, to meet Scotland’s share of the Landfill Directive targets. Furthermore, we remain committed to achieving 55% recycling and composting of municipal waste by 2020, in line with the National Waste Plan.

  We also consider that our aim should be to achieve 50% recycling and composting from increased recyclate and compostable material from kerbside collections and from recycling centres and points and 5% from residues arising from infrastructure to treat residual waste.

  These are Scottish figures and we expect that there will be some variations between individual authorities reflecting the larger number of flatted dwellings in the four bigger cities and the current availability of waste infrastructure and we will be writing to local authorities separately on their recycling and composting targets.

  We have also considered how much additional residual waste capacity in Scotland is required by 2020 to meet the EU Landfill Directive target. We have concluded that the 1,140,000 tonnes of capacity is required across Scotland and that the indicative awards from the Strategic Waste Fund to local authorities will total £48 million a year at today’s prices.

  The two groups of authorities who are most advanced are, in one group, City of Edinburgh Council, Midlothian Council, West Lothian Council, East Lothian Council and Scottish Borders Council and, in the other group, North and South Lanarkshire. We are announcing today that the allocations of funding and treatment capacity for these two groups of authorities will collectively amount to 500,000 tonnes of capacity with indicative allocations amounting to £21 million per annum at current prices. Any funding is dependent on the approval of final outline business cases submitted by these groups of authorities by the Scottish Executive. These outline business cases should clearly indicate the public participation that has been undertaken.

  We will advise other groups of authorities in due course on their allocations. These will be within the overall Scottish total of 1,140,000 tonnes of capacity for 2020 and overall indicative funding of £48 million. Again, any funding is dependent on ministers approving cases submitted by groups of authorities, following public participation.

  We are also confirming today that we remain committed to local authorities working together when carrying out procurements of residual waste infrastructure to ensure value for money and economies of scale. To support local authorities, we intend to establish arrangements which will provide support to local authorities in procuring this new waste infrastructure.

  Some of the various business cases also included proposals for other more minor forms of waste infrastructure such as in-vessel composters and material recycling facilities which are closely linked to the development of recycling and composting. These proposals will be considered as part of our general strategy for achieving the increased levels of recycling mentioned above.

  We consider that the announcement today demonstrates our commitment to waste prevention, re-use, recycling and achieving the targets in the Landfill Directive. Our fundamental aim is clear: to continue the move away from landfill to more sustainable forms of waste management in Scotland.

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENTARY CORPORATE BODY

Parliamentary Visitors

Richard Lochhead (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what analysis has been carried out of the impact of financial and transport barriers on visitors who (a) wish to visit or (b) have visited the Parliament; what the findings were of any such analysis, and whether any resultant measures are planned to assist the public and schools from rural and remote areas to visit the Parliament.

Duncan McNeil: Recent research on the profile of Scottish Parliament visitors indicates that over 70% live in Scotland. The distribution of Scotland based visitors is concentrated in the central belt. Research indicates that most people will usually travel only up to two hours for a day out.

  The tables below shows the geographical spread of schools visiting the Parliament and schools receiving the outreach education programme, MSPs in Schools, in the current 2006-07 academic year. A community outreach programme has operated during session 2 for adult groups living in areas more remote from the Parliament.

  

 
MSPs in Schools


Highland and Islands
25%


Mid Scotland and Fife
19%


Lothian
16%


Central Scotland
11%


West of Scotland
9%


North East Scotland
8%


South of Scotland
7%


Glasgow
5%



  

 
Inward Visits Programme


Lothian
21%


Mid Scotland and Fife
17%


West of Scotland
17%


Central Scotland
13%


Glasgow
11%


North East Scotland
9%


South of Scotland
9%


Highland and Islands
3%



  Whilst information on the impact of financial and transport barriers has not been gathered across all visitors to date, education staff have surveyed local authority school transport organisers to establish what improvements could be made by the Parliament to support educational visits from more remote areas.

  Location is not the only factor that should be taken into account in targeting education and outreach services, including encouraging visits to the Parliament. Many of our most disengaged sections of the population are to be found in areas of deprivation, including areas of the central belt. The issue of monitoring the parliament’s visitor demographic and consideration of specific targeting will be considered as part of the implementation of the recent review of visitors’ services. In addition a review of the education and outreach service is also underway. It will consider the issue of targeting schools geographically and on other bases and is due to report in April 2007. Members have recently been invited to give their views on the education and outreach services to help inform the final recommendations.